County are behind Gearóid as he faces long road to recovery

Losing McKiernan could be a mortal blow to Cavan seniors’ chances this season, writes PAUL FITZPATRICK.

 

The word began to filter through on Tuesday evening, and the reaction was one, almost, of grieving.

First, there was denial — “are you sure it’s the cruciate? It couldn’t be, we’d have heard” — and then anger. It seems that every young Cavan footballer, from Ronan Carolan before the 1988 All-Ireland U21 final to Damien O’Reilly, just as he was emerging as one of the best in the country, through several others, sees their progress, and that of their teams, derailed at some point, even temporarily.

Why, to paraphrase Mario Balotelli, always us?

The depression of it kicked in fairly quickly, too. One supporter commented that “we may as well hand Armagh a walk-over”. What is the point turning up without the best player on the team, Cavan’s on-field general who not only dominates the middle but has out-scored every forward on the team bar one, Martin Dunne, this season, too?

By Friday, supporters had started to accept the grim reality. Gearóid is gone, for the rest of this season, and we have no choice but to get on with it.
Sport is so, so cruel. Chewing the fat with Cavan goalkeeper Alan O’Mara, he made a salient point.

“I’m not just saying this because he has got injured,” said the Bailieborough man, “but nobody puts in more effort than G.”

Terry Hyland reciprocated.

“In fairness to Gearóid, he has a very good work ethic and we do kind of smile sometimes after training because he is one of the fellas that the kitman is always giving out about because when he goes to look for the footballs, Gearóid has gone off with them!” said the manager.

Of course, it’s important to put things in perspective. Nobody has died, or is suffering a terminal illness. It’s a major setback for an athlete and his team-mates but when thousands in this region are struggling to put grub on the table, sport fades into the background somewhat.

But, still. A brilliant footballer, a modern-day warrior sent out every few weeks to lead our tribe into battle, will miss the guts of a season. Here among the drumlins, where football rules, that’s about as bad as it gets.

Maybe we are being too dramatic about the whole thing but as the rat-tat-tat of the keyboard is drowned out by the hammer of the rain driving in sideways and rapping off the windows of our office, you’d be forgiven for coming over all “King Lear”.

In literature, they call it pathetic fallacy — the weather reflects the mood. In Cavan this week, with our U21s beaten in heartbreaking circumstances and now the senior captain-in-waiting preparing to have his knee sliced and diced by a surgeon, it’s been horrible, stormy, cold and unpredictable...

The mood among football followers, and that’s almost everyone, is no different. Every person with any connection to the game in Cavan is gutted, not so much for the effect losing a player of McKiernan’s calibre will have on the team, but for the crushing sense of disappointment the man himself — still, incredibly, just 22 years old — must be feeling.

He is a player held in the highest regard, a genuine thoroughbred from a stable which has produced more carthorses than Classic winners for a generation and more.

While we have become used to winning Ulster underage titles in the past three seasons, scooping four of the last six played, those who were in a sodden Brewster Park on Wednesday, April ?? 2011 will never forget Gearóid’s performance.

When a team, and a county, needed it most, he swatted vaunted players from the mighty Tyrone like flies.

As a footballer, he has skill, speed, physique and is hard as a coffin nail, mentally and physically. Crucially, too, he is a leader — and that cannot be coached.

So while his loss is a catastrophe for Cavan and for the man himself and his family — football-mad Swanlinbar and Cavan supporters all — Gearóid will be back better than ever.

What can we do, though, but get back on the horse ourselves? No matter, try harder, as the adage goes. The greats come back stronger — that’s what makes them great.

Gearoid’s nature means he will embrace the challenge ahead and, if it’s any comfort as he prepares for surgery, rehab, soul-destroying nights and early mornings in the gym, let it be this: thousands upon thousands of Breffni supporters are behind him every step of the way.

Get fit soon, big man; the number eight jersey will be waiting on your return.

paul@anglocelt.ie